By March, the tempests of the North Sea had begun to wane. From every fjord and coastal inlet of the north, longships came slicing through the foam, their dragon prows rising from the mist like omens of a new age. They came to assemble for what would be the greatest raid in living memory.
The hosts swelled beyond counting. With men enough at last, Rurik wrote to Ragnar, requesting command over twelve hundred of the newcomers. Permission came swiftly, and he folded the chosen raiders into his own force, expanding his command to two thousand men. These he divided into two great formations—each composed of six hundred spearmen, two hundred shield-and-axe soldiers, and two hundred archers armed with powerful crossbows.
